Category Archives: News Writing

NEWS: Help me win a chance for an internship!

Hello friends and readers!  This isn’t my typical blog post, but I need your help.  I’m entered in a contest to win a chance at an internship through the website about.me, and I need your help to win.

Check out my about.me page, where you can find links to basically all of my Internet locations, and hit “Vote for this page” in the upper right-hand corner.  You can vote once every 24 hours, and if I’m in the Top 20, I’ve got a chance at that internship I’m aiming for!  The internship is for news writing, and I’m shooting for one at the Huffington Post.

Please share this blog post and the URL with your followers and Facebook friends!  If you need a little bit more, here’s the URL in plain format:

http://about.me/felizacasano

Thank you so much for supporting me!  Please hurry – voting closes April 22.

31 March: Review

In March, I had the opportunity to travel many places and try many new (and not-so-new) things. My first stop was the Association of Writers and Writing Programs National Conference, which took place in Chicago March 1-3. I’d never been to a writing conference before – and I’d never visited Chicago – so it was a great opportunity to learn more about writers and the writing community.

I also had the opportunity to visit one of the schools to which I am applying for graduate school.  It was an amazing and fantastic experience – although the 18+ hours of driving could have been less tiresome. Visiting really helped me form a better idea of what I want to do in publishing and what I want to pursue.

In terms of my writing, I’ve had lots of fun and interesting experiences this month.  The following stories were published in UToday, the online edition of UT News:

This list does not include stories included in the print edition of UT News.

At the end of the month, I had the awesome opportunity to teach a workshop on the Celtx program to my student writing group. I was so proud of everyone who attended: most of them not only learned how to write a screenplay and use the program, but they also completed their first short film script!

As April approaches, you can look forward to tons of fun events. It’s National Poetry Month, so I’ll have plenty of things to do with UTWG – including some public readings that may be of interest to some. Join us April 19 at Grounds for Thought in Bowling Green for an open mic reading – and keep checking back to find out what other things we’ll be doing for National Poetry Month.

Script Frenzy takes place during April, as well.  I’ll be participating in SF and blogging about it along the way! Check out my Script Frenzy 2012 page as the month progresses to learn more about the challenge and what I’m doing this month.

29 February: Review

Happy Leap Year!

With the help of my peers and contacts, I’ve been able to enjoy lots of inspiration this month.  My personal favorite blog article was Painfully Honest Critiques, inspired by several painfully honest sessions with my boyfriend (who is relentless in critiques, especially poetry critiques.)

It was a good month at UT Today for me! In February, the following articles were posted on UT Today:

This doesn’t include articles in the print edition of UT News.

As far as personal writing goes, not much progress was made this month. I’ve been really busy working on some detailed outlines, but not much actual writing.

However, I’ve done a bit more in the local literary community. Apart from the UTWG + The Mill Open Mic poetry reading Feb. 17 (see photos from the event here), I also attended a few other events including a poetry reading at Grounds for Thought in Bowling Green, which my boyfriend thought would be fun.  (It was.)

That’s it for February – check back in March!

A note: my blog will be suspiciously silent for the next few days, and those I regularly write to or whose blogs I regularly comment on may notice I’m just not around.  I’ll be attending the Association for Writers and Writing Programs’ National Conference in Chicago, which lasts March 1-3.

The conference is four hours away from where we live, and five members of UT Writer’s Guild will be attending.  This is a fantastic opportunity for all of us: three of us plan to apply for MFA programs within the next five years, one is graduating next year with a degree in English education, and I aspire for a career in publishing.  The conference will be a great way for many of us to learn more about the fields we want to go into, which is why we’re going.

However, I won’t be getting home until March 4, and I’ll be totally wiped out from the conference!  My plan for the first post-conference blog is to blog specifically about the conference – photos included – and that won’t be ready for a few days, so March may be pretty scant in terms of blogging.  However, I’ll be out of town a grand total of three times in March (!), so you can expect some interesting articles next month!

31 January: Review

January was a busy month for me! It marked the beginning of my last semester at the University of Toledo as well as tons of fun things in UT Writer’s Guild.

At UT Today, several of my articles went up this month:

This list does not include articles printed in UT News that were not posted on UT Today.

January also marks the second anniversary of The TECH Project’s publication date.  When I think back of all I learned while working on it, I also think of all I’ve learned since then!  It’s so hard to think that it was just two years ago…  It feels much longer.

As for UTWG, we welcomed Elizabeth Irwin and Chad-Michael Simon of the Northwest Ohio Writers Forum at our first-of-2012 meeting.  Members seemed pretty interested and receptive, and lots plan to attend the NWOWF meetings this year.  (Pretty successful!)

UTWG also selected J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit as our novel for Book Club Month in February.  I’ll post a few Hobbit-related articles this month, so if you’re a Tolkien fan, stay tuned!

Writing Organizations for Student Journalists

This is a bit late for me, since I’m graduating in May, but I thought it might be a good idea to talk a little bit about writing organizations for journalists and other editorial media that students may be interested in.

First off, any student who is either an intern at a news organization or works at a student publication should consider joining the Society of Professional Journalists.  SPJ is a fantastic resource for students.  During my time at the Independent Collegian, our staff received two regional SPJ awards, and we were able to have some great experiences because of SPJ.  College student memberships are $37.50 for one year.

For those students at print publications, there is also the American Copy Editors Society.  ACES is an organization for those interested in editing – especially copy editors for newspapers – and holds an annual conference about copy editing.  ACES also has regional events and scholarships for students expressing an interest in and aptitude for copy editing.

Female students may be interested in joining the Association for Women in Communications, which offers both professional and student chapters to its members.  Other benefits include job resources, membership directories, and awards.  Student memberships are only $34, and Recent Graduate memberships are available for the same price for those graduating within 12 months of applying for membership.

There are also associations for student journalists who belong to specific minority groups, including blacks, Hispanics, Asians, gays and lesbians, and other minorities.  Please visit the appropriate site to learn more about their student membership program.

If you are a dedicated student journalist planning to pursue a career in journalism, consider checking out these organizations.  If you are interested in learning more about other journalism organizations, please check out the American Journalism Review’s page dedicated to journalism organizations.